Roost
by Glacies
Summary: Out of all the things that could end up defining Gauche, Aria, and Jiggy as friends, it has to be when Jiggy buys a condo with such awfulness that it cannot properly be expressed through words and they all have to kind of pitch in to make sure the house doesn't become sentient and kill the brunette in the most horrific way possible.


While the whole situation is nothing more than a disaster, it's probably the one moment that defines them as not only a team, but as friends. It can't be any of the moments where they journey across the land and fight vicious monsters to protect people and deliver important messages, and it _most certainly_ cannot be when they meet at the Bee Hive and exchange laughs and jokes.

The thing that ends up defining them as friends _has_ to be when Jiggy buys what can _only_ be described as the Condo from Hell and they all have to kind of pitch in to make sure the house doesn't become sentient and kill the brunette in the most horrific way possible.

* * *

Gauche ended up blaming Aria for the whole incident. For some reason, the blonde had gotten it into her head that Jiggy needed an official place to stay, instead of picking the cheapest looking hotel room and staying there. According to her, official homes meant that people would end up being more _stable _and less likely to make _rash decisions_.

"I think she's convinced you're secretly addicted to drugs," the older Letter Bee told the brunette on a particularly long journey that they had ended up working together on. They'd had to go up to some small town - Silver Magnolia Crescent, a weird name if there ever was one - and Jiggy had picked up some weird piece of machinery on the way back.

Jiggy laughed, "It wouldn't exactly be a secret if I was. If she wanted to know, she would just have to ask me and I'd tell her."

There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Gauche broke it. "Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Addicted to drugs?" Gauche clarified, fixing his eyes on the stars.

Jiggy shook his head and grinned. "Of course not. I mean, yeah, I've tried a few when I was younger, but I haven't touched them for years. Amberground's bad enough on it's own. Don't need an addiction on top of it."

* * *

Even when it was clarified that Jiggy _wasn't_ in fact doing drugs, Aria was still firmly set on the decision that he needed a permanent place to live, which ultimately led to her trying to find a place for the Express Bee to stay. This, inevitably, meant that house hunting would be involved.

It generally went something like this -

aria: this apartment's not too bad - it doesn't cost _too_ much either. What do you think?

jiggy: does it look like I even care?

aria: you should, you need a place to stay when you're not on deliveries.

landlady: the place used to be a meth lab and head of a drug cartel.

jiggy: cool cool can I bring a piece of delicate and heavy machinery in here or not?

aria: haha, we're done here, thank you for your time.

or -

landlord: it only costs an arm and a leg to live here, but we do provide all repairs and utilities, along with our services

aria: this is actually a good deal, jiggy

landlord: I thought you were looking for an apartment, young lady - I don't think I'll offer my services to the young man. He might not _appreciate_ them as much.

jiggy: yeah we're done with this place good sir because you creep me out like you would _not_ believe

but the condo from hell went kind of like -

jiggy: so I heard you're selling a condo pretty cheap

landlady: when I was seventeen, I killed a man

jiggy: hmm really

landlady: get me enough money for some dubious illegal things and the condo's yours

aria: jiggy you cannot be serious

jiggy: I'll take it

* * *

Honestly, the Condo from Hell looks like a prison cell. It's got low ceilings, concrete floors, and cinderblock walls. It has a couple windows, but they're not only small and high up, they _also_ have bars across them, proving that once again, the building was clearly designed to hold criminals. It has a porch as well, but Aria refuses to go near it, considering the fact that there are a multitude of animals residing on it. Some are dead, some are injured, and they all add to the character of the house.

The character of the house being _I will watch as you suffer and I will bask in these feelings for they make me strong._

Aria pretends that she doesn't notice that Jiggy ends up nursing the injured animals back to health, and that he keeps one - some sort of falcon, that he names Harry. The two are fairly inseparable.

It's the only good thing about the condo.

* * *

Jiggy finds the place quite nice, to be honest, and that's the problem.

The whole problem stemmed from the fact that Jiggy had no clue what classified for good housing. When compared to the other places he's stayed, the condo _is_ actually pretty nice. The other places include some very sketchy motels and the occasional alleyway, alongside his most common home (the street).

So it's not like the condo has much competition on what classifies as nice.

So what if it's got gang signs spray-painted on the walls or a few minor bullet holes here or there? It's still livable, and he's only found a _few_ discarded needles, which makes it leagues better than the last place he was.

Aria nicknamed it the Condo from Hell and refused to even enter the neighborhood without Bolt.

* * *

When the Director came down with a basket of things, he makes a face like he can't decide if he wants to cry at the sight of the building or laugh. Aria managed to get a picture of the man's face, and it has a nice frame now and a reason for being in the house.

The 'main' reason is to cover some graffiti that Jiggy never really got around to painting over, but the second secondary reason is that the picture makes him smile whenever he sees it. He's got other pictures of the Aria and Bolt, Gauche and Roda and Sylvette, and all of them are carefully positioned over graffiti.

Or so he claims.

* * *

The first time he returns after a few weeks of wandering the countryside, there is a nice little sign hanging on the inside of his house that reads _welcome to the condo from hell_. He guesses it's from Aria, because that's the sort of thing she would do.

There's also a cactus left on the crooked table, with a tag on it that reads something bout housewarming gifts. He decides that's from Aria as well.

* * *

Luckily, cacti don't need much water, because somehow, he ends up with about nine of them in his kind of dumpy kitchen.

* * *

It turns out the _Condo from Hell_ sign is actually from Gauche, which surprises him, because Gauche is generally too nice for these things.

* * *

When Gauche shows up talking about some kid named Lag he met on a delivery (and clutching another cactus for the kitchen, which is what - number fifteen by now?), Jiggy invites him into the condo, and the two of them eat breakfast right next to the cacti. Jiggy ends up feeding Roda eggs on the sly and pretends not to notice his friend's disapproving glare. He also ends up flicking some bacon to Harry, because he clearly has the superior of the two dingoes and Harry deserves actual meat.

Gauche denies this fact, and they get into a sort of friendly argument that ends when Jiggy lobs a pillow from the couch at Gauche and ends up knocking over the almost finished Iron Horse instead.

* * *

Then Gauche disappears, and Aria quits active assignments.

Jiggy finishes the Iron Horse and looks for Gauche when he's bouncing around the country, because he not only misses his friend, but Aria never smiles like she used to.

* * *

Jiggy doesn't go to Central anymore.

Aria still waters the plants in the condo anyway, and smiles even less.

* * *

After the whole Cabernait fiasco, he stops in once in a while. Just to check up on the people he knows.

And to water the cacti, of course. He somehow has nineteen now, and they're in the living room as well. He has nineteen cacti, and a note on the nineteenth that reads _from noir_.

* * *

When Jiggy stumbles into the Bee Hive and finds Zazie Whatever-His-Last-Name-Is (he can honestly never remember) sitting with his face pressed into his palms, he's slightly confused. His dingo is sitting next to him (a cat who could _easily_ eat Harry alive), and for some reason, the Express Bee chooses to sit next to him. There's no real reason significant, life changing meaning to it - he's not connected to the boy in any real important way, never really talked to him except that one time when they were hunting the Cabernait.

To be honest, it's more of a pity move than anyone else, mainly because the boy is drenched. His hair is plastered to his face, and there's a nice pool of water spreading around him that Jiggy avoids. Well, he doesn't fully avoid it, because the puddle is huge, and it does him no good if he sits eight feet away to keep from getting wet.

Zazie doesn't even look up when he sits down. Jiggy starts to wonder if this was a bad move.

"So, um. Hey." Jiggy says, and his voice sounds awkward and strained. "You okay? You're kind of drenched."

_Way to point out the obvious_, he tells himself.

Zazie lets out a grumbly snarl that might have been words but are pretty much undecipherable. Jiggy decides that sitting here was a bad decision. The silence is now stretching on and becoming all sorts of uncomfortable.

He'll give it one more shot, he decides. Then he'll drop off his report and take his one day vacation.

"So… why are you here at," he checks his watch and frowns, "Eleven forty three at night?"

"I got kicked out of my apartment, okay?" Zazie snaps, finally removing his face from his hands. His face is contorted into a snarl and he looks furious. Probably because Jiggy interfered in his brooding. "Just leave me alon-"

The younger Bee doesn't finish the sentence, and his rage filled expression switches to sheer mortification. It looks so odd on the black haired spitfire that Jiggy laughs and for some reason, feels compelled to root through his pockets for the set of keys with the smiley face.

Finding the keys, he tosses them at Zazie's face, interrupting the slew of apologies that the black haired boy is spouting off. The younger Bee catches them and looks so shell shocked that Jiggy laughs again.

"Ask Aria for the address, and if you stay there you're required to water the cacti." He tells the now speechless boy, and tosses him the report as well. "And bring this to the Director, since you're already heading up there."

He stands up and tries to avoid the rest of the puddle (and failing, because water is seeping into his boots), ignoring whatever Zazie's trying to say behind him. He shoves open the Bee Hive door and disappears into the rain and perpetual twilight of Amberground.

* * *

Jiggy doesn't know why he gave Zazie the extra set of keys, but he thinks that maybe it's because having a place to stay means _stability_ and less _rash decisions_. Or something like that.

Not like he'd know what those are.

_fin._


End file.
